DEJI
OF AKURE, PART X By Dr. Wunmi Akintide
I crave the
indulgence of some of you who have come across any of my series on the
Deji including the new Deji himself who had had cause to exchange one or
two mails with me on the same series, ever before he became the "victor
ludorum" in the protracted contest. I also want to seize this opportunity
to thank all of you who have reached out to me, either to affirm, commend
or criticize some of my principled stance on the Deji's imbroglio or
readers who have merely sought clarifications on some aspects of my
position or the history of Akure. The latest in that list among several,
is one Mr. Femi Aguda of California. My
determination in writing all the pieces I did on the Internet and
elsewhere, is to break the logjam of silence among our people or our lack
of documentation of anything in our own part of the world. I honestly
believe that one of the observations that separate or distinguish the
developed countries and the Free World from the developing ones and those
still in mental chains, is lack of documentation. If you don't know where
you are coming from, you are not too likely to know where you are going!
In that unique sense, History therefore becomes very critical, in my view,
to any society or any country's desire to make progress. By the special
grace of the man of the hour, Agagu and the cooperation of the 14 or 15
remaining king makers in Akure, the stalemate arising from the Deji's
drawn-out selection exercise was finally broken, end of November 2005,
after close to six years of delay and recriminations. In the process we
had a candidate selected by the king makers in 2000 in Prince Adegbola
Adelabu a.k.a. Ileri Oluwa who had already performed all the ceremonies
and rituals of becoming a Deji, minus one or two critical rites before his
selection was finally derailed by Agagu and Oluwateru working in tandem.
It was a huge breach of Akure tradition for a candidate to go that far
before being stopped. The Agagu Government should have saved Akure of all
that breach, if it had acted sooner on the nomination of Ileri Oluwa
submitted to them by the king makers, as far back as the year 2000. Why?
Because we all know that even though the king makers are important in
selecting an Oba, it is the Government that has the final say. The king
makers could do all hey want, if the Government does not go along, it is a
nullity. Agagu Government may now argue its hands were tied by so many
court litigations pending in Court by aggrieved parties. While that may be
true, there were other factors too. Corruption was another factor in the
delay. They, Agagu and Oluwateru and some of the mercenary king makers in
Akure had wanted Prince Ileri Oluwa who was considered a cash cow, an "Agbonmagbe"
of sorts among the serious candidates had to be allowed to spend or waste
part of his millions, and he surely did on the presumption that no other
candidate could match his ability to throw money around. If I do not know
the picayune details of how much money he had spent. I do know, for sure,
that he had single-handedly contributed 2 million Naira at one time for
the king makers to try and rush the completion of the new ultra modern
palace. Now that a new
Deji in 46 year old Kabiyesi Oba Adesina Adepoju, Osupatadolaa the third
has now been installed in reversed order following the rushed ratification
of his selection by the Agagu Government, the time may have arrived for us
to now start doing a post mortem on the winners and the losers in the
selection exercise for the benefit of History. I consider such
a post mortem compelling because the final resolution of the Deji's
stalemate, as good as it may appear on the surface, has some serious
consequences for the "dramatis personae" ie the principal characters and
individuals involved in the selection from the newly created Osupa/Odundun
Ruling Line to the King makers and to the individual candidates and even
to some of us who had the courage to say it loud and clear that once the
Omo-ori-ite provision had been expunged from the 1958 Deji's Declaration
as amended, the decision to go ahead and forcibly break into two the only
Ruling House in Akure was an overkill, unnecessary, and totally unfair to
the other units of the Asodeboyede Ruling House in Akure. Let us begin
with the winners. Yes, the newly created Osupa/Odundun Ruling Line had to
be seen as a winner. The last time any Deji from their unit ever reigned
in Akure was in 1845. It was a tremendous achievement for them to find one
of their descendants being selected a Deji again. I don't care how you
slice it, it was a huge, huge achievement. The individuals to specially
thank for that achievement are many. Some of them are even dead like Pa
Aladetoyinbo, the late Bale of Alayere in Akure Local Government. But
among the living, we have to specially recognize and congratulate the
Bajimo of Akure Omowas, Dr. Chief Adebimpe Ige Ogunleye-Aladejana who I
had strongly recommended in one of my articles on the Deji as the person
suited to be named the Head of Family following the exit of Pa
Aladetoyinbo. He was not a
Johnny-just-come lately of a Prince in that unit of the Asodeboyede House.
At a time when very few dared to identify with the Family, he was down in
the trenches fighting along with others for the unit to be created into
another ruling line in Akure. I knew his role in that regard, when I
served as Secretary to the only Akure Ruling House in 1975. Dr. Adebimpe
Ige Ogunleye-Aladejana who is now Chairman and Head of Family is a winner.
By the same token, Kabiyesi Adesina Adepoju as the first "non-omo-ori-ite"
great grand child to ever ascend the throne in more than 700 years is
clearly a winner. It was a Napoleonic feat, if you ask me. Among the
losers had to include Chief Oluyemi Falae whose prestige and national
stature has helped the Family articulate its case before the Government
and the general public. He was initially named the Head of Family but
later reversed to Deputy Head. Above all, the candidate he had supported
did not win, in large part, because of a conflict of personalities between
the faction of the king makers that supported the Falae candidate and
those that did not. I can tell you
that the Falae factor had to be seen as a huge loss for people like me in
Akure who hold the Chief in the highest esteem. I strongly believe that
Akure town would have been better served, had the chief made it known,
years before now, that he was in any way related to Royalty in Akure. Like
I said before, in one of my articles on the Deji, he most certainly, as an
Akure Prince, would have been considered a sure bet to be crowned a Deji,
if he had shown interest in 1991 and obviously in 2005.I would have been
rooting for him for sure. Tell me, who
would not have preferred a former Presidential candidate and a former
Secretary to the Federal Government and Minister of Finance to any of the
candidates presented by the Osupa/Odundun Unit? It should have been a cake
walk for Chief Falae, and I would have been in the forefront leading the
effort to crown him a Deji in our town, because he is a star in our town
without any question. He would have been our own superb equivalent of
Kabiyesi Laloko of Iloko in Ijesha, Oba Olasore. Akure would have loved
the choice to death. But Chief Falae, I regret to say, did not establish,
early enough, his blood relations to Royalty in Akure. We knew him to be
an Heir Apparent of Ilu Abo without any doubt. We also knew him to be
related by blood to the famous Elemo Family of Akure. I can tell you that
my own brother-in-law Prince Aladetoyinbo who initially had the greatest
leverage to win, all things considered, did not win, when the chips were
down, for very strategic reasons. The other big
losers, if the truth must be told are the majority of Akure citizens in
Baltimore, Maryland, USA who had already crowned Prince Aladetoyinbo a
Deji in Diaspora, in much the same way like Ladejola Oginni was crowned
the Owa Obokun of Ijesha Land. They had given him all the moral and
financial support to make him a Deji, but, sad to say, their effort was
not good enough. On the contrary, The Oyemekun Progressive Union of the
tri state areas of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut had come out
winners by their neutral stand as ably represented by their President, Dr.
Kayode Fakinlede of New Jersey. Of course,
Ileri Oluwa who had performed all the rights necessary to be crowned a
Deji, but did not get crowned, was a big loser having spent his millions
in pursuit of a mirage. How about the
king makers? The winners were clearly the Olisa Otutuleyowo the Second,
retired Colonel Folorunsho David and the eight other king makers who had
voted for Prince Adesina, and the losers were the 5 king makers who had
gone along with Prince Aladetoyinbo. I have to single out the Olisa as a
man of steel and principle. I don't care what anybody may be saying about
him, retired Colonel David would go in history as one of the most
principled and effective Olisas in close to a hundred years. You can quote
me on that. I am not one of those Adesidas who believe the present Olisa
should be declared a "persona non grata" to the Adesida Family for good. I
don't be believe he had born any animosity against the Adesida as a group,
as rumored. All he had done was stand up for fairness and principle, and I
believe he was right to do that, when all was said and done. Those who
continue to criticize his support for Ileri Oluwa to start with, and his
last minute switch-over to Adesina Adepoju just don't know him as well as
I do. I can tell you here and now that the same Olisa and king makers who
think like him, would have supported any other candidate other than an
Adesida, even if the only Asodeboyede Ruling House in Akure had not been
broken into two, and once the omo-ori-ite clause had been put to rest.
Why? Because the Adesida fatigue had already set in, and the majority of
our king makers were hell-bent to see a non-Adesida candidate as the next
Deji in Akure, if only to break the more than 100 years jinx. If Kabiyesi
Ataiyese ever got anything right in his short reign, his choice of
Folorunsho David as Olisa of Akure was clearly one of them. Another king
maker I would mention in person is Chief Asamo Olusanya, now the longest
reigning Akure Chief. You could say anything you like about him, Chief
Asamo Olusanya was "a man of timber and caliber to borrow a cliche from
the late Mbadiwe. He was the most astute politicians of them all. The losers have
to include Chief Elemo Bolanle Adedipe one of the most charismatic and
popular Elemos of all times. He, sure, didn't come out too good in this,
when all is said and done. Chief M.A Falade, the Odopetu also did not come
out too good in the selection exercise, all things considered. I cannot
tell whom he had voted for in the selection tally, but there is a chance,
he might not have been on the victorious side, I would guess. Chief Aro
Aminu and Chief Ojomu Oluyide were a stabilizing force among the king
makers, and I have to believe Sasere Oluwaleimu too must have played his
part very well. Unfortunately, The Sao another important Chief to watch
was spared of any embarrassment in the exercise by death. Among the other
short term winners had to be counted Governor Agagu, and his obedient
Deputy in Oluwateru who, we have now learnt, was the invisible brain
behind the last minute selection of Adesina Adepoju who must have spent
the least among the principal contestants for the throne. As an accountant
by profession he had waited till when it counted the most to shoot out,
and he had pulled all the stops in his many years experience as a clever
Londoner to pull a fast one on everybody, on both the Governor and his
Deputy and then on the majority of the king makers. I call the Governor
and his Deputy Oluwateru a short term winners, because the peace overtures
they probably believe they were making to Akure as a whole and to the Deji
-in-Council, to paper the cracks arising over their decision to break up
Akure into three kingdoms, is going to have very serious reparcautions
that would go far beyond their tenure of office when the chips are down. That point
leads me to the other winners in Kabiyesi Osolo and Kabiyesi Iralepo who
finally got their chance to fulfil their life ambition by getting the Ondo
State Government to elevate them as Obas during an interregnum when they
knew the Regent, Princess Adeyinka Adesida could not command as much clout
and leverage as a substantive Deji to stop them from becoming Obas, and
they were exactly right. But the acid test would come when an effort is
being made to carve out or demarcate their two kingdoms from the Deji's
kingdom. I know Agagu
and Oluwateru may have put the new Deji in a box by letting the young Oba
know that without their support, he could not have made it to the throne.
They would then like to use that to constantly intimidate him not to speak
up against them and their Government, if the push comes to shove. The
elevation of the two Obas, if not reopened and renegotiated with this new
Deji and the Akure Council of Chiefs and the rank and file of Akure, as
soon as the Deji's Honeymoon with the Government is over, could be a
serious Pandora Box of the future. That is where
the Olisa and the other Akure Chiefs are going to openly disagree with the
new Deji, if he is not very careful with the kind of cozy cammaraderie he
presently enjoys with the Governor and his Deputy over the elevation of
the two Obas. His Honeymoon with Government could be the shortest enjoyed
by any Deji in recent memory. That is a prediction. My humble
sugestion would be for the new Deji to have the Agagu Government go back
to the drawing board, not necessarilly to undo what has been done, but to
renegotiate the terms, and to document the dos and the don'ts in
specificity before the two Obas start telling stories about how thay have
brought their crowns from Ile-Ife, and what they see as their natural
boundaries with what is left of Akure after Isolo and Isinkan are taken
away. The famous Ogun Idanre would be seen as nothing but a skirmich,
compared to the rancour and recriminations that the Osolo and the Iralepo
feud and debacle may generate in the fullness of time. With some
diplomatic move, I believe we can still avoid such mayhem in our town. I
hope and pray it won't come to that. I rest my case.
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